Marco Polo
by Soyna
Summary: Zack finds a black cat and contemplate keeping it as a pet until it gets sick.


**Marco Polo**

* * *

**By:** Soyna/Albedosreqium  
**Fandom:** Final Fantasy 7 — Crisis Core  
**Characters:** Cloud Strife and Zack Fair  
**Rating:** Teen  
**Warning:** Yaoi (a tad), silly. Reeve and robots.  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own these characters as this is a work of fancy of the author to explore the fandom further. I make no money from this endeavor.

**Summary:** For Tsukimiko-618 for the Great Fall Exchange. Zack finds a black cat and contemplate keeping it as a pet until it gets sick.

* * *

Zack stopped dead in the hall.

He was used to seeing guard hounds wandering about. That was a usual occurrence, and that also meant that Rufus or the Turks were nearby. Black cats were not a common sight on the SOLDIER floor.

It was a large cat. His first thought was that it was one of the escaped experiments from the lab. The labs really needed to look at how many times they had creatures escape in a year, and to fix that. Chasing monsters around the building was not a fun task. He was on his guard as he approached the seemingly unassuming cat.

The cat must have heard his footsteps, and it turned its head. Large yellow eyes looked up at Zack and gave him the most adorable and soft, little mewl.

His heart melted. "Aw, who left you here? Are you lost?"

The cat mewled before walking up to him and rubbing itself around his legs. It looked up at him with pitiful yellow eyes. He could hear the cat purring. He reached down to pick up the lost cat, which immediately nuzzled his face. He stroked its fur and looked at the collar that it wore. It only had the Shinra logo on it; no name, or PHS number.

It was obviously someone's cat, as it liked the attention it was receiving. "Well," Zack said, "I'll take care of you, my little Tuxedo."

The cat was mostly black with a white patch on its chest and forehead. Tuxedo was the perfect name for the cat. The cat wiggled in his arms and surprised Zack by climbing onto his shoulders. It purred loudly as it settled around his neck like a living scarf.

* * *

He asked everyone that he knew who the owner of the cat was. Tuxedo seemed quite happy draped over his shoulders as he walked around the floor, and even as he sipped at a coffee. Tuxedo was quite a cuddler and loved the attention that it was getting as they walked around. It seemed to particularly like it when people scratched the white spot on its forehead.

He saw Cloud, waved and called out to him. Cloud looked confused, and his look changed to one of amusement as he got closer. "I was wondering why you were wearing a fur scarf. Where did you find the cat?" Cloud reached up and scratched the cat's ears. Tuxedo let out a small mew and nuzzled the hand that was offering it attention.

"I'm trying to find the owner," Zack said as he looked around. "I've asked just about everyone, and I can't find anyone that knows who it belongs to."

Cloud shook his head and laughed. "So, you took to wearing it like a scarf?"

Zack couldn't help but return the laugh. "It's quite comfortable here." Zack reached up to scratch the other side of the cat, causing its tail to twitch in response.

"I can see." Cloud looked at the tag that was attached to Tuxedo's collar. "This is an engineering tag. Weird."

"Engineering tag?"

Cloud started to explain. "When engineers finish their projects, they usually fix a tag — like this — to the description plate that has their initials, and series number. It's like a patent thing."

Zack nodded. He remembered vaguely about that. He honestly slept through a lot of those bureaucratic-type classes. He much preferred going out in the field and fighting.

"Uh-huh," Cloud said with a suspicious look at Zack. "We should go to the engineering floor. I bet we can find the owner there."

"Can't we keep Tuxedo for a little while longer? I'll send out an email," Zack said as they walked to the elevator and played with the cat's ears.

Cloud rolled his eyes. "You named it?"

"Well, I can't keep calling it 'Cat'. That's kind of rude."

"Do you know how to take care of a cat? Do you have food or a litter box?" Cloud stopped talking and shook his head. "I can see from that look on your face that you have no idea."

"We can go shopping to make sure that Tux is comfortable." Zack bounced as he pressed the button to go to their floor. Zack was glad for the thick sweater that he wore because he could feel Tux digging claws deeper into his clothes to hang on, but it gave no indication that it wanted to run anywhere.

* * *

"Your definition of a 'few' is skewed."

There were three bags of food, various forms of cat toys, a scratching post and special cat bowls all for Tuxedo, and there were still bags to be unpacked.

Tux was on the couch looking quite pleased with itself as it chewed on a piece of plastic that had wrapped one of the toys. Cloud was perplexed over the whole thing. His experiences with cats were that they could find anything to amuse themselves, as playing with the wrapper that was in its paws indicated. Zack was extremely overzealous with the toys that he had bought the cat since it was amusing itself with garbage.

"I didn't know what Tux would like so I had to buy options," Zack said as he pulled out some cans of food that looked like tuna. "Do you like this brand, Tuxedo?"

Tuxedo jumped off the couch and bounded back onto his shoulders. Zack laughed. "Aw, did you miss me?" Zack scratched at the spot on its forehead.

Cloud started to go through the purchases and try to find a place to put it all. He did smile as Zack played with the cat that was on his shoulder.

The burly Second Class SOLDIER was turning into a child — well, more childlike — as he threw a small feathered ball down his hallway. Tuxedo bounded off his shoulders to run after it and brought it back.

"Look, Cloud! It plays fetch!"

Cloud laughed. It was great to see Zack acting like this. With all the stress that he had been dealing with lately it was surprising to see a cat making him so happy.

It was a good distraction for Zack to have.

That was until Tuxedo started acting strange. Its movements slowed down and it no longer seemed interested in the toy. Zack tried a string, but Tuxedo only half-heartedly pawed at it.

Tuxedo's movements became even slower and jerky. Zack tried to feed it food but it didn't want any of it or any water. Cloud could see the worry on Zack's face as Tuxedo's motions slowed down but the cat didn't act like it was going to sleep.

"Tuxedo? What's wrong?"

Zack was holding the cat limply in his arms. Tuxedo curled up against his chest and mewled. It wasn't a strong of a sound as it was before. It was rather scary to see such a sharp decline in the cat's health. Its eyes didn't seem as bright as before either.

"I played it to death!" Zack shouted and turned to Cloud with a horrified look on his face. "What do we do?"

Putting a comforting hand on Zack's arm, Cloud spoke, "Let's go to the engineering floor and see if we can find the owner. Maybe it needs some medicine. If we can't find the owner, we can take it to the vet."

Zack nodded as he stroked the animal's ears. "Okay. We'll save you, Tux. Why didn't you say you were sick?" Zack was quick to walk out the door and to head to the elevator. Cloud had to jog to keep up with his long strides.

"I'm sure Tuxedo will be fine once we find the owner."

"I hope so," Zack said as he bashed the elevator buttons.

* * *

The engineering floor was ... different.

They both hesitated as they stepped out of the elevator. Zack hummed as he looked around, and Cloud could see him getting ready to battle; the subtle change in his stance told him all.

He didn't blame him. This was not what he was expecting when he came to this floor. It was like a scene from a horror movie. The floor looked like a bomb went off. There was a desk that looked like there was supposed to be a secretary sitting at it. There was a chair there that was full of gears, and something that suspiciously looked like an eyeball sitting on it. Over the desk the ceiling tiles were missing and there were wires dangling down. The floor was littered with pieces of drywall and ceiling tile that crunched under their feet as they walked.

"Hello?" Zack called.

Cloud wanted to cling to Zack's arm, but decided to instead move closer to him. This was almost as scary as the labs; the only difference was that there weren't any bubbling tubes — just sparking wires.

There was a loud thud from deeper within the floor and that made Cloud jump. He involuntarily grabbed onto Zack's sweater but quickly let go. He didn't want to appear weak over whatever the something was that fell on the floor. Zack, thankfully, didn't say anything.

Tuxedo mewed and raised a paw. It was a strange action and it looked like it was pointing. "I ... I think Tux wants us to go that way," Zack whispered.

"That was towards the thump," Cloud said quickly and was ashamed at how silly he was acting. He was in the military and was used to monsters jumping out of everywhere, guns firing, and bullets blowing by his helmet, but the eerily silent floor with the odd bursts of noise was affecting his nerves.

A new 'tink' and 'whir' sound could be heard coming from the direction that the louder thump came from. Cloud jumped and moved behind Zack.

A robot puttered towards them and they both stepped back as it rolled by. It was dragging wires and a wheeled chair that had gears on it. It seemed oblivious to them, and for that Cloud was grateful. The robot looked like it was only half-built with half its hull missing. They could see all the gears and stuff turning on the inside as it rolled on by, with wires sparking and glowing as it did.

Zack moved aside as it lumbered by, and Cloud followed his movements. "Zack," Cloud whispered and tugged on his sweater. "That was creepy."

"Maybe we should take Tuxedo to the vet," Zack said as he looked a little wary as the robot disappeared around the corner. The robot was way beyond creepy.

Tuxedo mewled in an urgent and almost pained sound as it tried to move in Zack's arms. It seemed like it was trying to crawl out and head in the direction that it had been pointing.

"I think the owner must be on this floor," Cloud whispered. He was scared to raise his voice to any volume. He didn't want a robot that was going to pay attention to them to be attracted. "Let's get this over with and get out of here as quickly as possible."

Zack nodded and went in the opposite direction the robot had gone. Cloud was thankful that they didn't need to follow that weird mess of robotics.

They walked slowly down the hall and came to a small alcove. The area looked like something had exploded recently. The walls were covered in black soot and there was the smell of mako and dust in the air. A few metal gears and rods were stuck in the wall, floor, and ceiling. The remains of what had blown up were huddled in the corner, a mess of wires — that looked like veins — and was sitting in a small pool of dark red transmission fluid.

"Let's just take Tuxedo to the vet," Cloud whispered as he tugged on Zack's sweater again. This scene was too much for him. How could they make machinery so creepy here?

They turned around and started to walk quickly back to the elevator when a door that they had not noticed before opened and a cart was being pushed out. Cloud gave out a small squeak and he could feel Zack tense.

The rolling cart lumbered through the door with a lot of clanking and banging. It was being pushed by a man in a dirty white dress shirt and dress pants. "Oh! Hello. I didn't know I had company."

Cloud panted and held a hand to his chest. He felt his face heat up as he couldn't believe that he startled so easily.

"Mr. Tuesti," Cloud said quickly. Zack was amazed at how many people Cloud seemed to know. Zack started to feel like he was going to have to pay more attention to the reports and maybe the organization chart. "You startled us."

Reeve gave a good-natured laugh and ran a hand over a shirt that had once been white but was now thick with soot. "Well, the floor is a bit of a mess, as you can see. We lost one of our... Oh!"

Reeve walked around the cart quickly, knocking over some of the strange instruments that were on it. "You found Marco." Reeve pulled the cat from Zack's arms and held it up with his hands under its front legs. "We have been looking everywhere for you." Marco gave a sickly mew at the handling.

Zack recovered from his shock. "Yeah, we found Tu-Marco on the SOLDIER floor. It seemed lost."

"Yes, indeed!" Reeve said as he held the cat up like he was inspecting it. "You wore yourself out Marco."

"That was my fault," Zack said and slumped his shoulders. "I was playing with Marco and he kinda wore down." He let out a big sigh and his shoulders slumped further. "I didn't know you had cats up here or... they were subjects."

"Cats," Reeve tucked Tuxedo under his arm. "They are excellent subjects. They have a perfect body structure and people inherently trust them." Reeve's other hand rifled through the stuff on the cart and he pulled out a small glowing blue tube. He handed it to Zack. "Can you hold this for a moment?"

Zack did.

Then Reeve took the cat's head off.

Cloud thought he was going to faint. Zack's face even lost a couple of shades of colour.

They were not expecting to see wire, tubes and gears as the head was placed on the cart... and it was still blinking at them and twitching its ears. Reeve pulled out a dully lit tube that looked like the bright one in Zack's hand out of its neck. He held up the tube and examined it. "These batteries have a horrible life span. They only last a day or two. We are currently looking at better designs." Reeve threw the dead battery on the cart. He grabbed the live battery from Zack's hand replaced it in the neck hold of Marco/Tuxedo. The legs started to twitch before Reeve replaced the head with a sound that resembled crunching bone.

Marco/Tuxedo immediacy mewed and jumped from Reeve's arms.

"Now, go find Polo! He was worried about you, little missy!" Reeve said as he clapped his hands.

The cat gave a nod, but before darting off, wrapped itself around Zack's legs a few times before bounding down the hall. Zack was still standing with a stunned look on his face, and his hand still extended as if he still held the battery.

"It was a robot!" Cloud gasped out as his voice finally returned to him.

"Of course," Reeve said with a friendly smile. "They are prototypes for infiltration units. We are still working out a few bugs in them, but we are progressing well with their programming."

Zack finally lowered his hands to his side and his shoulder slumped. "So, all that cat food I bought was useless?'

Reeve nodded. "Sorry, my boy, but Marco only runs on batteries. I will reimburse you if you need. I'm glad you enjoyed her company. I need to work on this pesky battery life, though. A few days are not nearly enough time for them."

Zack nodded and opened his mouth to say something, but Reeve continued to talk. Reeve babbled for a good ten minutes about the cats and the battery life sucking before he gave them a horrified look. "Oh, where are my manners? Would you two like some tea? It is the least I can do for bringing Marco back."

"No-no, thank you, sir," Cloud interjected, as it looked like Zack was about to accept the offer. "I have to get back to patrols." He really wanted to get off the floor.

"Another time, then," Reeve said with a smile. "Hopefully, I will have this all cleaned up by then. It has been a busy day."

"Yes, another time," Cloud said, tugging on Zack's arm and trying to pull him out of this creepy floor.

"We'll call ahead," Zack said as he allowed himself to be dragged away.

Cloud breathed easier as they got closer to the elevator and further away from Reeve. They did see the robot dragging the chair again. It was obviously just running in circles and oblivious to anything put in its path. It seemed to have gained a few more cables.

"That was super creepy. I thought he ripped Tuxedo's head off," Zack whispered.

"I guess it's better than sticking it up his ass."

They both giggled as they reached the elevator. There was Marco standing by the door and another cat that looked like an inverse copy of Marco. The white cat had a black patch on its head and forehead. They both assumed that it was Polo.

They were standing on either side of the elevator like small sentinels.

They both mewled and rushed forward. Zack was only able to take a step back before they entwined himself around his feet for a moment, rubbing their heads against his calves. Zack looked nervous. They walked in front of him, stood on their hind legs, bowed their heads and then darted away.

That was not normal activity for a cat.

Zack walked over and pressed the button for the elevator with urgency.

They both breathed a little easier as it opened and were able to step inside. They could hear that robot coming around the corner again. Cloud was quick to jam the door close button before even pressing the floor to get back to Zack's quarters.

"So, what are you going to do with all the stuff you bought?" Cloud asked after the elevator started to move.

"I'm going to ship it to Reeve. I don't think I want a cat for a pet anymore. Maybe I should get a puppy—a real puppy. I don't want to take something's head off to get the battery out to feed it." Zack visibly shuddered.

"You could always design one to stick the battery up its ass." Cloud giggled at his own joke.

Zack rolled his eyes and moved forward, grabbed Cloud in a headlock and gave him a noogie. Cloud protested and fought him.

"I think I'll keep my chocobo, then."

Cloud sputtered and couldn't respond. The door opened, and there were people there as Zack walked out with him under his arm.


End file.
